The puritans

• Members of a religious reform movement known as the puritanism

• Arose within the Church of England
• Started in the 16th century

• They felt they had a direct covenant with God to enhance reform

• Extreme conservative fundamentalists
• Puritans – to purify
• The puritans had protestant beliefs, but took it to the extremes
• The arision of puritanism:

• Criticism of the catholic church: has too much political power <- highly criticised
• Rome was said to be corrupt -> protestants
• England: King Henry VIII eliminated catholicism, and created the ‘Church of England’ (WHY? Lad issues with his vifes, wanted to divorce)

• In the 17th century, more and more groups of worshippers separated themselves from the main body of their local parish church to follow an energetic “leader” instead (usually young man with a Cambridge degree were the new leaders) -> some congregations even separated from the main church (they were too extreme, too rigid)

• Because of fear, these groups (called themselves as ‘visible saints’) migrated to Massachusetts (and other places as well) -> the colonies of these strict, rigid, extreme religious people grew there
• The puritans were one of these groups -> Some puritans migrated to northern english colonies in the ‘New World’, in the 1620/30s <- since the puritans kept their focus on the importance of family, whole families migrated to New England in the US

• Pilgrims vs Puritans

• Pilgrims: separatists
• Puritans: they said they were not separatists, they did not repudiated the Church of England as a false church – but they actually acted as separatists

• Why puritanism? “Puritanism as a way of coping with the contradictory requirements fo Christian ethics on a world on the verge of modernity” – Max Weber
• 18th century:

• Puritanism declined, but showed its tenacity

• Puritans now: the word has a pejorative epithet, meaning prudish, constricted, cold-as
• Heritage of puritanism: Harvard, the region of Massachusetts